Sir Ronald Ross Collection

Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, 1901-1917; Nobel Prize material relating both to his own prize and the work of the committees, 1913-1918; Royal Society of Medicine, 1913-1918; War Office papers; Ross Institute, 1899-1932; literary works, 1878-1931; mathematical interests, 1884-1931; medical writings, 1884-1929; British Science Guild, 1914-1931; material relating to the spelling reform, 1903-1931; editorship of the journal Science Progress, 1913-1931; miscellaneous material, 1874 -1939, including correspondence, material relating to guinea pigs and inoculation, the life history of the common mosquito, the agricultural condition of Bengal and maps of the Surgeon General’s Office, Calcutta, the Gold Coast and Africa.

Sir Ronald Ross was born in India in 1857. He completed his medical studies in London in 1881 and returned to India as a surgeon in the Indian Medical Service. Ross began his study of malaria in 1892 and between 1897 and 1898 he verified the causal link between the life cycle of the mosquito and malaria. In 1899, he joined the staff of the recently established Liverpool School of Tropical Diseases and three years later received the Nobel Prize for medicine. He was knighted in 1910. Ross left Liverpool for London and private practice in 1912 and in 1925 he witnessed the opening of the Ross Institute as a research establishment for the study of tropical diseases. In addition to his medical work, Ross was also an accomplished novelist, poet and mathematician and these interests are reflected in the collection, along with papers demonstrating his professional career. He died in 1932 after a long illness.

The Ross Collection represents approximately half of the existing Ross papers. The other papers, which are similar both in quantity and contents, are deposited at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and are known as the Ross Archive.

For an obituary of Sir Ronald Ross, see the British Medical Journal, 1932 (Volume 2).

Arranged chronologically within record series.

Access to some items may be restricted. Please contact Heritage staff at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow.

Descriptive list available at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. See also NRAS Survey 1909 and 2200.

Identification of copyright holders of unpublished material is often difficult. Permission to make any published use of any material from the collection must be sought in advance from the Archivist. We will try to assist in identifying copyright owners but the responsibility for copyright clearance before publication ultimately rests with the reader.